


Like Normal People Do

by alt_olive



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Coming of Age, Drama, F/M, Kabby, Pre-Canon, The Ark Station, Young Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 17:40:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25190281
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alt_olive/pseuds/alt_olive
Summary: The opposite of love isn't hate, it's indifference, and the two of them have never been indifferent to the other.Imagining the life of Abby Griffin and Marcus Kane as young adults on The Ark. How did the adults come to their relationships, career, and values as we first saw them? Once upon a time, they too had to navigate parental expectations, first loves, unexpected friendship, and living in space after the world ended.
Relationships: Abby Griffin & Jake Griffin, Abby Griffin & Marcus Kane, Abby Griffin/Jake Griffin, Abby Griffin/Marcus Kane
Comments: 16
Kudos: 27





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pieces of this story are inspired by Normal People by Sally Rooney. I also took some liberties in mixing content from the original Little Women novel and dialogue from the 2019 film. Disclaimer: I'm not good at the living in space post-apocalypse part so there may be some hand wavey science.

_And we said, “This has only just begun.” In the end, time forever favors the young._

It wasn’t only that it felt like a lifetime ago. It was that Abby Griffin and Marcus Kane had completely forgotten they lived a life before deciding on careers and becoming council members. In Abby’s case, before having children and getting married.

Before growing up.

They had once been young. They had once believed they would live and die in space. Then they were on Earth and Marcus believed he’d be buried in the deep rich soil. Maybe under a looming wide tree. Maybe next to the love of his life.

Death hadn’t crossed Abby’s mind. Death didn’t command Abby. Abby commanded death. At least it seemed so when she was willing to dangerously travel to Earth on an escape pod with Raven, or when she met Indra in a field and the strong woman held a knife to her throat, or when she slid down into the pile of rubble crushing Marcus without a second thought.

Whether she knew it or not, she commanded death. That was until the bunker. The bunker had changed everything for Abby.

There wasn’t an endless supply of books in the bunker. And although many people passed around dense texts on Greek mythology. They weren’t the only books available.

On a particularly bad day, Marcus had left a tattered novel in a small corner of medical that Abby had claimed for herself. Its pages were that dull yellow that old paper turned into overtime and when you flipped through it, they were stale and stiff. The cover page on the back had been completely ripped off and the spine of the book was beyond worn.

There had been no sign of Marcus in the mess hall during lunch and she was left wondering what was keeping him. Even if they weren’t speaking to each other yet. Rather, Abby wasn’t speaking to him. But lunch was their way to make sure the other still existed.

When Abby had arrived back to medical after a short lunch and saw the withered book on top of her tablet, she got the answer to where Marcus had been. She approached her corner slowly and let her hand rest on the novel before picking it up to see the cover page. Her heart sunk at the scratched up golden embossed title.

She held the heavy text in two hands then, a flash of memories fluttered in her mind, but when she saw each memory it was like she was looking from the outside in. The young people in her mind felt made-up. As she mindlessly flipped through the pages, looking off into the distance, her thumb felt a small swipe of the paper differently. She looked down to find Marcus had folded a page. Before opening the book up to where he had marked, Abby already knew what she was going to find. When her teary eyes looked down at the text, she was right.

_“We can’t stop God’s will.”_

_“God hasn’t met my will yet. What Jo wills shall be done.”_

* * *

**The Ark - 2126**

Seventeen years living in space, thirteen years of attending the same classes with the same group of people, and from those people Abby only really cared for approximately two of them. Callie and David. She’d grown up with David, the Millers were her neighbors, and Abby’s father, Gerald Walters, respected that David’s dad was Head of the Guard.

Abby’s mother didn’t really value anyone over the other. Laura Walters didn’t believe that anyone on The Ark was special. She had said if they were, they wouldn’t be in their predicament, to begin with. The predicament being, “living in space on an overcrowded piece of junk.” She believed their lives were merely collateral damage. The Ark to Laura in many ways was purgatory. They couldn’t go back to Earth, and even if they could, Laura made it very clear that the human race wasn’t deserving of it. Abby could never figure out why a woman with such a hopeless view on life decided to become a doctor. She could also never figure out why her father, a generally kind and sincere man, decided to marry Laura.

Whatever the case, she hardly saw her mother anyway.

“Abby pay attention,” her Earth Skills teacher scolded her.

Abby blinked, looking away from the metal wall with sketches of plant life etched on it. “I was,” she scrunched her eyebrows in, her face turning into an annoyed scowl.

“Your eye line was not towards the front Miss. Walters.”

The rest of her classmates turned to look at Abby, smirking at her getting chastised, which rarely happened.

“I wasn’t aware that my eye line was under your jurisdiction Mr. Morris,” Abby responded, her fingers clenching around the one pencil they issued to students every six months. She heard the rest of the class snicker under their breaths. It wasn’t uncommon for Abby to give teachers lip; she didn’t really respond well to figures of authority. But she bit her tongue more often than not.

“Deciding to impress your friends today Abby?”

“No.”

“Then pay attention or you won’t learn anything.”

“I have nothing to learn from you. Earth Skills is a bogus class none of us will ever use, and I feel sorry that you have to waste your life teaching it,” Abby held Mr. Morris’ gaze as she finished her sentence, slowly placing her pencil down. Everyone “oooed” and laughed harder at Abby’s statement. She hated how good it felt to go head to head with her teacher, the side smirk her mother hated appearing on her face.

“It’s not about us,” someone spoke up hesitantly from the back of the class. Everyone turned their head to the source of the voice.

Marcus Kane, sat with bad posture in a desk a size too small for his build, staring down at the scuffed-up metal. His dark hair fell in front of his face, and in a swift movement, he pushed it back, leaving his designated pencil in the crook of his ear.

“Excuse me?” Abby asked him, craning her neck to peer back at him. Her long hair flipped over her shoulder to flow freely down her back and her brown eyes pierced his.

“I said it’s not about us. We teach Earth Skills so that we don’t forget what it takes to survive on the ground. Not for us, but for those after us. Our children, or our grandchildren, are going to need to know how to survive.”

“Don’t kid yourself, Kane, no one is crazy enough to marry you,” Abby’s tone is clipped and cold. Anyone else looking at Marcus wouldn’t have noticed the way his breath stopped, and his jaw clenched.

Marcus narrowed his eyes on Abby, “There’s someone for everyone. Your father was crazy enough to marry your mother.”

“That’s enough!” shouted Mr. Morris, “Griffin, Kane, both of you will serve detention over at Section 15 tonight.”

Abby had kept her front, but on the inside, she was grateful Mr. Morris had spoken up. She didn’t have an immediate snarky remark to follow Kane’s. It was never that she disliked him for being a pompous prick. Because Abby knew when she was poking the bear. It was that he often held himself on some vain moral high ground when none of them were in the position to decide morality for themselves.

Marcus leaned back in his chair and watched as Abby gave him a disapproving look before turning to face the whiteboard. His eyes lingered on the curvature of her neck, as she moved her hair over one shoulder, the way she usually did when she was annoyed or focused. He watched as she tapped, almost twitch like, on the top of her desk – her fingers strained.

Then she tilted her head at an angle that was barely visible to anyone if you weren’t already looking at her. Abby’s eyes moved to meet his and Marcus felt hot under the glance of her peripheral vision.

Her mouth opened and he looked at her lips as she mouthed, “ _Go float yourself.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that wasn't a total bust! More coming soon.


	2. Chapter 2

Marcus informed his mother at supper that he was to report to Section 15 for detention at six-thirty that evening. With fifteen minutes until his presence was expected, Vera gave Marcus a surprised look. 

“What could you possibly have done to earn detention?” she asked, spooning the remainder of her soup into her mouth.

His mother watched him carefully, as he passed her the food he couldn’t quite stomach down that day. Vera put up her palms, signaling she couldn’t take his rations. “I’m full, _really_ ,” Marcus said and refused to take back his metal tray. Vera knew she wouldn’t win, so she nodded gratefully, and started picking at his meal.

“I basically told Abby Walters her mother was an unlovable hussy,” Marcus murmured, a bit ashamed of what he had gotten in trouble for.

Vera didn’t look up from the table, “Hmm,” she nodded up and down, her mouth turning into a small frown. But the type of frown that meant, _well that’s not a great thing to say, but things are what they are sometimes._

Marcus chuckled, turning to face his mom, “You agree?”

“No, I would never call someone that,” Vera took playful offense, “but Laura and I don’t really value the same things. She can whisper all she wants about the church and our tree, but she’d never say it to my face.”

At that moment both Laura and Gerald walked into the mess hall, without their daughter in tow. However, Marcus could guess Abby had already informed them of her circumstance because Laura met Marcus’ eye like a laser set on a target. It didn’t last long as the older woman scoffed before turning away.

Vera took notice of the interaction and spoke up, “Regardless, you shouldn’t have used her mother as a chess piece, Marcus. We don’t get to choose our blood. I’ve been very lucky you don’t ridicule me.”

“I could never,” Marcus reached out to lay his hand on top of his mothers and gave it a gentle squeeze before tidying up the dishware before him. He had about ten minutes to get to Section 15, “I have to go, but I’ll see you before bedtime.”

When Marcus stood up, gathering the metal tray and cup in his hands, Vera told him one last thing, “It seems the only times you get a demerit or detention are when Abby works you up. A pattern is clearly happening. You don’t always have to argue back.”

Marcus tilted his head and he grinded his molars before he answered, “Agree to disagree.” Then he was off, purposefully walking by the table where Laura Walters sat.

* * *

Abby left her quarters with only five minutes to get to Section 15. She would have left earlier, but Abby felt unmovable. She sat on the edge of her bed with a lump in her throat and replayed the argument with her mother. 

_“You let the likes of that ignorant family get to you?”_

_“They’re not ignorant!”_

_Her mother huffed, “What they believe is not-”_

_“At least they believe in something.”_

_“The Kane’s have nothing but blind faith. If you are going to become a doctor, you need to stop thinking like a child, or your practice will take a toll. Hope wills nothing but disappointment, Abby.”_

_“Are you through? I’ve got to try and stuff dinner down my throat before spending my night with Marcus.”_

_Her mother paused, perhaps reading into something Abby had never noticed herself, “You enjoy wasting time with the Kane boy?”_

_Abby inhaled extensively before letting a slew of hurtful words out, “Do you enjoy being the annoyance of humanity? You think everyone ridicules Vera and the church she leads as much as you do. But they don’t. At least the Kane’s attract goodwill. No one would blink twice if they decided to float you without reason.”_

_The look on Laura’s face was a mix of hurt and anger, Abby felt like she had won. So, she began to get off the bed but her mother put a stronghold on her shoulder and pushed her back down, “No dinner tonight. Consider it your punishment for getting detention.”_

Now, Abby tugged at the end of her sleeves, rolling them down her arms – because when she was anxious Abby tended to push the fabric up over her elbows. Her quick pace wasn’t enough to get her to Section 15 on time. And that’s why when she pushed open the heavy steel door, she found Mr. Morris and Marcus Kane awkwardly awaiting her arrival.

“Nice of you to join us, Abigail,” Mr. Morris said standing up, “your tardiness has earned the both of you an extra hour-”

“You’re kidding me?!” Marcus exclaimed, his hand shooting to the back of his head. His fiery eyes met Abby’s, but he caught a speck of apology in them.

“I can assign a guard until midnight Mr. Kane?” Mr. Morris challenged, and both Marcus and Abby stayed quiet, “I thought so.”

The room they were housing looked like any other storage closet in Section 15, except this one was lined with small hallways covered in a tarp.

“Where are we?” Abby asked curiously.

Mr. Morris walked backward and pulled one of the tarps coating a shelf until dust floated around them and they all started coughing.

Marcus was the first one to see the books, piled carelessly into the shelves, completely disorganized. He walked over to them with disbelief, running his eyes over the titles and colors and textures. Abby followed him when the dust settled, both of them carrying a sense of wonder in their irises.

“The Council asked for these books months ago,” Marcus murmured.

“Well other things took precedence over the Chancellors promise to create a library of sorts.”

“It’s a mess,” Abby commented, “I can’t imagine anyone would want to make sense of the disarray.” Then she turned to Mr. Morris, her eyes wide, “Oh, no! Us? Really?”

Mr. Morris chuckled, “You and Marcus are at the top of my class. I was going to mention it anyway. But seeing as how the two students acing Earth Skills, were also the ones _disturbing_ it, I felt like it was the right disciplinary choice. I hope I don’t have to think of another option in the future – I understand the two of you don’t always see eye to eye, but I encourage you to find some level ground.”

Abby looked up at Marcus, and Marcus tilted his chin down to Abby. He noticed the way her eyelashes fluttered against the top of her cheek like she was trying to blink away a train of thought.

Marcus cleared his throat and they both faced the piles of novels again, “So our punishment is organizing these books for The Ark?” He craned his neck around the corner of the shelf and bent his knees to look through the top of the books to the other side, “There are at least five other shelves.”

Mr. Morris clasped his hands together, “I’ll leave you to it then. There is a guard stationed outside. He’ll notify me if you try to leave before ten. Good luck.”

They watched in silence as Mr. Morris shut the door behind him. Abby was ready to discuss the plan for how they were going to organize hundreds of books in a matter of three hours. But Marcus was the first to speak.

“Why were you late? You’re early to everything,” he turned to face her, his arms crossed in front of his chest. Abby noticed the black cotton jacket he was wearing fit him loose, and the zipper was three snaps away from falling off. Underneath the jacket he wore a plain grey shirt, the collar hung unflatteringly around his neck, having been stretched by the person who wore it before him. Even with the ill-fitting clothes, Marcus always held himself with a sense of pride, and that showed in his pushed back shoulders and attentive gaze.

“I lost track of time,” Abby told him, and it wasn’t a complete lie, but Marcus knew it wasn’t the entire truth. However, he guessed it had more to do with the older woman who scoffed at him earlier than Abby would ever tell.

So, Marcus nodded, accepting her answer. Abby looked shocked to see his interrogation had ended so soon. Marcus was always one to pry information out of people. Except, the crescent marks on Abby’s hands and the soft shade of pink that hadn’t fled her nose just yet had persuaded Marcus not to instigate. At least not this time.

Abby was wearing a cream long sleeve shirt, with a grey tank underneath. He noticed the careful stitching on the patches sewn onto the places holes might have been. It wouldn’t have surprised him if she had repaired her own clothing instead of trading something for the service of a seamstress. Her light brown hair flowed down to the middle of her back. She had tucked strands behind her ears and Marcus stopped staring when she moved away, taking a random book with her.

“I think it would be the fastest if we worked together, one shelf at a time,” she leaned back against a large storage box, looking down at the text in her hands, flipping quickly through the pages with the pad of her thumb.

“Hmm, alright,” he pursed his lips in thought, “so we take the books out first, organize them, then put them back.”

“Are we organizing by genre?” she let her head fall to the right in question.

“I would like to say yes, but there’s no way we know what each of these books is about. Without a database, I think we should just organize it all alphabetically.”

“Well, then we should empty _all_ the shelves first, make piles of the alphabet, and then put them back.”

“I suppose you’re right.”

“Excuse me, can I hear that again?” Abby closed the book and lifted her hand up to cup her ear, a toothy grin on her face.

Marcus couldn’t help as a smile lifted the ends of his mouth as well, “Absolutely not.”

“Oh come on Kane, can’t you be more agreeable?” she tossed the book onto the floor, “Like _everyone_ else on this space station,” Abby rolled her eyes.

“Everyone’s not agreeable, they just don’t like sparring with you,” Marcus lifted his hand to the edge of a shelf, balancing his weight on his left side.

“That’s not true.”

“Yes, it is. No one speaks up to you, no one challenges you,” Marcus shook his head perceptively.

“ _You do_ ,” Abby met his gaze, “I thought I made that clear.”

“I didn’t find it clear at all,” Marcus whispered, his eye line falling to his boots.

“Well, you do. And … so does my mother,” Abby answered softly. Marcus stayed silent, toying with the inside of his lip, the last words of his own mother whispering in the back of his mind. Abby continued, her voice a little rougher, “If I ever become a mom, I’ll be nothing like her.”

She was only ten feet away from him, but it felt like Abby was far away in her own mind, perhaps imagining a future she wanted for herself.

“Do you want to be a mom?” Marcus inquired, the loose fit of his jacket suddenly feeling more and more snug. He lifted a finger to its zipper and dragged it halfway down his chest.

The question had caught Abby off guard, “I don’t know.” She grabbed her hair, twisted it around her finger, before letting it fall before her left shoulder.

Marcus spoke up then, “I can’t imagine bringing a child into this world.”

“At all?”

“The Ark is overpopulated and under-resourced. Why would I want to bring a child into this mess?”

Abby looked stunned, “You were the one saying our children, or grandchildren, would find their way to the Earth. By stating that, you were abiding to hope in the human race thriving past all of this.”

“No,” Marcus lifted his index finger, “I merely stated the reason we teach Earth Skills, that is, according to our government.”

Abby stared at him, realizing for the first time ever, she’d have to get better at understanding his rationale, “Well you could have led with that.”

“Then you wouldn’t have cared to debate,” he shrugged cunningly.

“What does that mean?”

“You don’t really participate unless you disagree with me … or Thelonious. No one else is looking to go into leadership anyway, so it makes sense.”

“Leadership? I don’t want to be a part of the Council,” Abby chuckled breathily, unbelieving of what he was saying.

“I don’t think you’re going to have a choice,” Marcus said matter of fact.

“We always have a choice, Marcus.”

He fought the urge to roll his eyes, “Think about it. Who else is on track to be a doctor within our class window? By the time you’re a senior medical officer, Dr. Tully will be senile, and the Council requires a seat to be filled by a senior role from Med station.”

“Don’t use the word senile in front of me, it’s gross,” Abby fake gagged, earning a tiny expression of amusement from Marcus. “Also, even if that becomes true, I can request a dormant seat. Meaning, if the Council needs medical advice, they can seek me out for guidance. But I wouldn’t need to be an active member in other decisions being made.”

“Trust me, you’re going to like being an active member of the Council.”

Abby clenched her jaw at his words. Marcus didn’t know anything about her, she wanted him to stop pretending like he did, “And you?”

Marcus looked around the room like she must have been talking to anyone else but him, “What about me?”

“What’s your plan?”

“I don’t know, I don’t have one.”

“Bullshit." 

Marcus grinned, walking over to where she had carelessly discarded the book on the floor. He took the time to think of how to answer her question. Abby watched as he kneeled down, only two feet away from her, to pick up the novel.

When he stood back up, Abby noticed the apprehension he tried to hide, “I just want a secure position, one that our government deems important, so I don’t have to worry about being the sacrificial lamb.”

“That’s grim, even for you,” she told him gingerly. Marcus squeezed the pages in his palms, wondering if all Abby thought he was, was formidable. 

He took a small step towards her, so he could lowly say, as though he didn’t want anyone else to hear the truth, “I want to make sure my mom is never in trouble, and that if she is, I’m in a position to _do_ something about it.”

It’s so incredibly sincere, that Abby couldn’t help but dodge the sudden tenseness between them, “Lining up your Chancellor pardons already Kane? What’s your mom going to do? Steal the water from the bonsai tree for herself?”

Marcus allowed her to navigate away from the serious topic, “She would never. That tree is holier than God to her.”

“I’m aware,” Abby whispered, letting her hands cross behind her back. When had he gotten so close to her? She could practically feel the body heat radiating off of him.

“Me, Chancellor,” a smile crossed his face, “can you imagine?”

Abby exhaled, “Well _someone_ in our class is going to end up being it whether we like it or not.”

“Yeah, here’s to a Diana Sydney administration in the next twenty years.”

“Please, tell me you don’t mean that.”

“I would rather cut out my own eyes than see that happen,” he laughed.

Abby giggled too. Then she took a long pause and as a joke because she couldn’t let herself believe it too much, especially not in front of him, she said, “I think I could be Chancellor.”

Marcus studied her expression, incredulous that she didn’t believe her own words. Then he told her, with all honesty, “I think you’re right.”

Their eyes met, brown on brown, and they laughed. Not because they thought Marcus was lying, but because they never agreed on _anything_. And here they were agreeing on something much larger than their small disputes in class.

“Okay, these books must be releasing some sort of fumes that are making you nice to me. Because you’re never nice to me,” Abby’s smile is still plastered on her face, but she looked away from him.

“I don’t think we talk enough for you to make that assumption.”

Abby’s smile fell.

Marcus continued, “This is the most we’ve _ever_ talked. We debate in class a lot, but we’re never cruel.”

“Except for today. I was pretty terrible. And you’re not mean unless someone belittles you, which I did.”

“I’m sorry for what I said.”

“It’s okay.”

A silence took over.

“You’re right, we don’t talk.”

Marcus smiled softly, his unaccompanied hand finding its way into his pocket.

“Who do you talk to?” Abby inquired curiously.

“Sinclair, mostly. But we’re not close. At least not like you, Callie, and David are.”

“It’s good to have friends.”

“I can imagine.”

Abby noticed his somber tone and switched gears smoothly, “Sinclair is sweet. He and Jake have been friends forever, you should try and talk more to them. I heard Jake’s nice and he’s as smart as Sinclair, so I don’t think you’d have trouble fitting in.”

Marcus’ lips turned into a straight line, “Jake and I aren’t really on the same wavelength.”

“Explain?”

“Jake is very, ‘My body is my temple, time will tell, humanity has the capacity to withstand all odds.’ And … I’m not.”

“Did Jake really say his body was his temple?” Abby lifted her eyebrow, a crooked smile on hold, waiting to turn her lips up.

“No, but the guy is way too humble. And he’s jacked Abby, you can’t deny that.”

“I don’t know,” Abby’s lips pursed, then she shrugged, “I guess I’ve never really paid attention to him.”

“Well it’s obvious,” Marcus’ eyes bored into hers.

“I don’t think it is,” she shook her head, “I think you’re just observant.”

“He’s a giant.”

“As I said, I haven’t paid attention.”

“Well, he pays attention to you.”

Abby scoffed, blowing his comment off her shoulder.

“He looks at you even when you’re not talking. He prolongs putting his stuff away just so he can hold his hand between the doors for you and Callie after class. He-“

Abby lifted her hand annoyed, “Okay, I get it.”

“Then don’t deny it.”

The air between them is dense. Their toes merely inches from each other. Their chests move up and down slowly, followed by the sound of their breaths. If a pin dropped across the room they would be able to hear it.

Suddenly the door is pushed open and Marcus takes a large step away from Abby. She doesn’t think too hard about how cold she immediately felt. A pleasant-looking guard walked in, clearing his throat, “Sorry, I just have to make sure you guys are working and not … _you know_.”

“Fornicating?” Abby piped up, making both men in the room uncomfortable. Marcus turned a deep shade of pink.

“Yeah … that,” the guard tightened his lips, his eyes fluttering around the room.

“Nope, just us and some books. I imagine we’d get some pretty nasty paper cuts if-”

“We’re not … we’re not going to do _that_ officer. Thank you,” Marcus cut Abby off and nodded at the guard before he left the room.

Abby thought of a hundred things to make Marcus more self-conscious than he already was. But the young man looked about ten seconds away from fainting. So she decided against it.

Instead, she strode over to the rest of the shelves, “Well, I guess we should actually start,” and then she pulled down another heavy piece of tarp -- leaving them in the dust.

* * *

They didn’t finish organizing all the books that night. After the guard had interrupted _whatever_ moment they were having, all Abby and Marcus talked about was the task at hand. They were about halfway through putting the alphabetized novels on the third shelf when Mr. Morris walked in letting them know detention was over.

However, Mr. Morris was surprised by how much they had accomplished in only three hours. If only he knew they had wasted the first thirty minutes simply talking. Although, he would have never guessed since Abby and Marcus didn’t look at each other when they hastily left the room and walked their separate ways.

She went to Alpha Station and he went to Farm Station.

The next week in class, Abby was more aware of Marcus’ presence. But it felt like he was somehow less aware of hers. She couldn’t feel the burn in her back from his stare. Usually, the stare that accompanied an argument she had just won -- but they had both been more silent in class than previous times.

Abby was also more aware of the way Jake went out of his way to be kind to her. He complimented her out of the blue when they would be grouped for class discussions. When Jake ruined the curve in Physics, he offered to set aside tutoring time for Abby so her mother wouldn’t chew her head off at the B- in bold caps lock on her midterm exam. If Abby cared enough about what her mother thought, she would have said yes to Jake’s offer. But something about not being the _perfect_ daughter convinced Abby to decline.

When she had shown her mother the exam, the series of events that followed was exactly how Abby predicted. Although, the hateful words of disappointment that flowed from Laura’s lips didn’t hurt Abby any less. Her father, who always seemed to be missing when her mother was particularly _on one_ , wouldn’t have let Laura go _that_ far.

Unfortunately for Abby, Laura _did_.

Abby had fled their quarters out of frustration, but couldn’t think of anywhere to go. She needed somewhere she could be alone. A quiet space.

A light bulb went off in her head, and Abby wiped the wetness from her cheeks and strode determinedly to Section 15. There was no guard in the hall, which Abby was grateful for. In a swift motion, she pushed open the metal door to the storage room where she had served detention about a week and a half ago.

Everything was just as they had left it. Most of the books shelved nicely, but still many piles needed to go. As Abby made her way deeper into the room, she was met with something she was not expecting. Rather, _someone_.

Marcus sat with his back against a shelf, his legs crossed on top of the other, and a book opened on his lap. At the sound of Abby entering the room, his head had shot up. He stared at the young woman, who looked more vulnerable now than he had ever seen her -- and she stared down at him.

“Are you okay?” Marcus murmured.

Abby approached him slowly, and Marcus held his breath until she knelt down beside him.

“No,” she answered in a manner that begged him not to ask questions. In one swift movement, Abby sat on the ground, and turned her back to him, pushing her body until she could lay flat, with her head on his lap. “Just read to me wherever you left off,” Abby told him quietly before she closed her eyes and held her hands above her abdomen.

Marcus looked down at her, what seemed like a vision of his imagination waiting patiently for him to start speaking. He took one last look at the mess of her hair splayed wildly on his legs and angles of her rosy cheeks. Then Marcus picked up where he had left off.

_“I don't pretend to be wise, but I am observing, and I see a great deal more than you'd imagine. I'm interested in other people's experiences and inconsistencies, and, though I can't explain, I remember and use them for my own benefit.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading and the kudos/comments! More soon. :)


	3. Chapter 3

After reading three more chapters with the attentiveness of a surgeon in the operating room, Marcus closed the book gently.

“Why’d you stop?” Abby asked, her lips barely moving.

Marcus interlocked his hands against his stomach, debating if he should say the truth or not. The dim lighting of the room helped him mumble, “I can’t concentrate with you there.”

Abby’s eyes blinked open, dilating in adjustment to the room. She turned her head towards him, her left cheek rubbing the rough material of his pants. “Have you never had a person lay their head in your lap?”

Through his teeth, he lied, “Of course I have.”

Intrigue immediately ignited the neurons and pulse running through Abby’s body. She lifted half of herself up into an angle, her left arm bent at the elbow, “Who?”

His eyes, dark as a starless night, narrowed down at her, “None of your business.”

Abby stared at him intently, wondering who in space it would be. The longer she looked at him, the more he felt heat spread throughout his cheeks.

“You’re blushing,” she didn’t tease, she merely noted out loud.

“Yeah, I’m aware.”

“You blush at a lot, you know. It’s your complexion.”

“Great, thank you for that.”

“Is it cause someone did more than lay in your lap?”

Marcus turned a dark red now, “No. God, no one has even done  _ this. _ ” He motioned to her beside him, tendrils of her hair falling between his legs. “I lied, okay. Give me a break.”

And because Abby felt particularly chaotic after getting shouted at for nearly an hour by her mother earlier, she looked up at him with a dark hue in her eye and decided to say something shocking, just because she could, “Would you let me?”

As her words landed on him, Marcus grew stone like, the red from his face disappearing. Tentatively he scooted himself a few inches away from Abby, and raised his palm to run up the back of his neck, a furrow on his brow. “We’re not friends, you can’t just offer to do  _ that _ .”

“I didn’t offer, I just asked if you would let me and I thought we were … friends.”

Marcus cleared his throat, a little on edge by the fact that Abby had insinuated giving him oral, but hadn’t made the slightest difference in her behavior to be kinder to him in class. Or even acknowledge to her actual friends that spending detention with him wasn’t a total joke. He had heard Callie ask her how it went and Abby had said,  _ “How do you think? It was Kane, we barely spoke a word all night.” _

Marcus had been walking a few feet behind them, waiting to ask Abby if she had wanted to set up a time to finish organizing the books. He hadn’t liked how awkward detention had ended, but he couldn’t think of another way to talk to her. After hearing her cool words to Callie, he thought better than to risk embarrassing himself. Maybe he hadn’t read her correctly at all that night.

But now, they are in Section 15 again, and the same emotions he had questioned were bubbling up once more. 

“Friends don’t hate each other,” Marcus stated.

Abby pushed herself up fully into a sitting position, “I never said I hated you.”

“Well you don’t really deny it to people either,” Marcus began to toy with the cover of the book, unable to look at Abby. She pulled her bottom lip between her teeth and rolled it backwards and forwards, wondering exactly what he was getting at.

“You told Callie we hardly spoke at all, when in reality that’s not what happened.”

“Marcus-“

“You’re the only one who really talks to me, even if it’s just you speaking  _ at _ me.”

Abby closed her mouth, a wave of guilt weighing down her shoulders. She realized that the reason Marcus had tried with much vanity to be indifferent to her for the past week, wasn’t because of their moment in detention, but because he had overheard her lie about him to her best friend. Abby had lied because it was easier than explaining the truth.

“It would have been weird if everyone saw us change from arguing in class to enjoying eachothers company,” she lifted her shakey palm to run her fingers through her hair. Abby also thought about her mother, and the hell Laura would raise if she ever found her spending more than the allotted amount of class time with Marcus. And although Abby really wanted to care less about what her mother would do, she couldn’t convince herself that the added lectures would be worth it. At least not yet.

Marcus knew Abby was right, everyone would whisper and tease. He disliked the audacity his classmates had as of late. It was like they entered tertiary schooling and suddenly no changes could be made upon arrival. Maybe when they graduated next year their classmates would be grown enough to not care.

“Do you enjoy my company?” Marcus asked her barely above a whisper.

“Yes,” Abby nodded her head once in emphasis, “I thought that was obvious.”

“I didn’t find it at all obvious,” Marcus confessed sheepishly.

A silence overcame them as Abby watched him wrestle with his muted thoughts. His lips had pushed out and he bit gently at the inside of his cheek.

“I,” Marcus started, raising his chin to find Abby’s doe eyes looking right into his, impatiently waiting. “I think I like your company too.” He could see Abby’s shoulders relax. “I’m a little confused about everything I think about you really. But I do like the time we spend here.”

“Me too.”

“So I suppose, we could both just save eachother the trouble and not mention it to anyone.”

Abby never expected Marcus to propose a hidden friendship.

“Unless you prefer we just don’t speak at all?” he asked steadily.

“I don’t prefer that, no.”

“Okay.”

“Okay, then.”

The room suddenly felt smaller. Not in a claustrophobic way. But in a way that made both Abby and Marcus comfortable. They had created a space for themselves and only each other. Even though they had met an agreement problematically — they would have rather had it that way than the alternative. However, in reflection, each of them would have travelled back to this exact moment and instead chosen courage over convenience.

Abby looked at the small space between their bodies and scooted closer to him. “I don’t want to go home yet. I could read now if you want?”

Marcus passed her the book, “I can’t be out too late, my mom will get worried.”

Before Abby could think twice she said, “That must be nice.”

He couldn’t find anything to say that would offer her reassurance. Abby took that as a signal to move on. She sat in the same position as him, shoulder to shoulder and patted her lap. “C’mon it’s only fair.”

Even though he hesitated before adjusting his body so his head would rest on her lap, Abby knew he would never have disagreed. When she opened the book, and felt him shift his head to look up at her, she now understood why he had found it hard to concentrate in this circumstance.

Abby swallowed before starting where he had left off,  _ “If we are all alive ten years hence, let's meet, and see how many of us have got our wishes, or how much nearer we are then than now,' said Jo, always ready with a plan." _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter down, woo! Thank you for your eyeballs and support! Also, the parts of the novel they are reading are not in order. (Sorry.)


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